Hello Everyone!
Interference in bold, puns and in italics, magic is underlined.
We're now at the end of Azzy's visit, so yeah. Undyne wanted to talk more, sorry.
Undertale is owned by Toby Fox, not me. I own my characters.
Still no clue about Chara, or Azzy.
Swearing returns.
If y'all see any problems, or have ideas for how to make this sound better (I admit I have NO IDEA how to write Alphys, and Azzy sounds kinda weird...) - don't hold back!
If it takes me a while between posts, it's 'cause school. Or sleep, that happens sometimes, too.
Those cats reading this, please don't tell me about your nap schedule, I'll get jealous.
Asriel
I finished the story with everyone standing on Mt. Ebott looking at the sunset, I can't help but notice how...still the kid is. Not like they've fallen asleep or anything, its...odd. Almost as though they're the only fixed point in a world of motion.
"...oh…I'm...how...okay. I'm still a murderer, though."
"Golly, kid, if we could forgive Flowey, after all that? If Frisk could forgive everyone for trying to kill them...don't you get it? In this world-" I will not sound like a demented flower, I will NOT sound like a demented flower, "It's FORGIVE or BE FORGIVEN," well, okay, I guess that's a different KIND of demented flower, "You won't be ever be alone, kid," Golly, kid, what'll it take to make you believe me?
Asriel - Later
"Hey, Pri-Azzy, wake up. COME ON, ya little nerd, it's time for you to get home, I'll take over guard duty from here. WAKE UP!"
"-bluh? Undyne, what..?" Oh, yeah. She was taking the night after me, wasn't sh- wait, how long was I-oh, I'm good. Just dozed off a few minutes ago, "The kid's starting to wake up for longer, but she just went back to sleep, so it might be a while, and-"
"Go home, Pri-Azzy," What's with that face? That's her duty face, the one she wears when she can't let her emotions out.
"Okay, Undyne…see you soon," something feels off...Papyrus has tomorrow's day shift, right? I'll ask him to swing by earlier...I don't like that she had that face on…
Undyne
I...can't believe they're gone. Maybe I should have asked Papyrus to take this shift...no, I can handle it. Anyway, Sans'd kill me if anything happened to him...well, TRY anyway...at least I think...ANYWAY, I want to know if they're in there, and Papyrus wasn't around when Nymphie and everyone came by...I can't believe they're gone. I'll never-STOP IT UNDYNE, FOCUS!
Gods, the creature looks so innocent, sleeping like that. Why won't it just die already? No, UNDYNE, STOP IT, if it dies, they die, and what if they're...awake? Is the thing waking up? Gods, I can't...no, it's gone back to sleep. What do I say to it? Hey, Nyssa, Nessa, can you hear me? How do you talk to your cousins' murderer if they might hear you?
Six SOULs...at least it isn't seven...heh, that would be weird, wouldn't it? Seven SOULs to break the barrier…only one human SOUL in there, though. I DO NOT want to be the one to tell Sans we've figured out one of them came from a skeleton…
Wouldn't it be strange if they could hear me? I don't know whether I want them to or not...What would I say to them, anyway? Little guppies, it's me, your Crazy Cousin Undyne, give me a wink if you can remember my piano lessons… "Who am I kidding, I never knew how to talk to them."
"...talk to who?"
*gulp* What the hell do I say now? "Um...two...monsters, like me, only with bluer skin? They were twins...Nyssa and Nessa…"
"...how are they?" WHAT? "I don't remember seeing them since-"
"SHOULDN'T YOU KNOW? THEY'RE IN THERE WITH YOU!"
"I meant...I've been holding them, yeah, but...have they-"
"YOU WHAT?! HOW COULD-HOW DARE YOU!" Good, I want you flinching.
"...th-they were hurt so b-bad, and I wanted t-to help-"
"THEY'RE DEAD!" Silence, and...tears? NO, you DON'T get to cry for them, "THEY'RE MIXED IN THAT GIANT HEAP OF ASH AND DUST. THEY'VE BEEN DEAD FOR WEEKS, AND...and...I'll never be able to...to give them...a p-proper funeral. I can't...AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"
Sans
A red convertible drives through the rain, a glowing blue roof across the top. As the tan power-roof climbs up, the blue retreats, until the only light is headlights on blacktop. A sign flashes red with the approaching turn signal, and the car rolls over through the near-empty parking lot to the hospital doors.
"I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT, SANS. WHY WOULD THE TINY HUMAN SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT? SURELY SOMEONE CARED ABOUT THEM...BROTHER, WHAT IS IT?" The quiet skeleton looks up at his brother. Something about his eyes clearly bothers Papyrus.
"pap, i...the thing scares me, bro. i've been...the things it can do, i don't trust it." His hands were shaking as he reached down to undo the seatbelt. A smooth set of bones covers his own.
"SANS, THE TINY HUMAN IS YOUNG. YOU TOLD ME THAT THAT PLACE WAS HORRIBLE...WHAT KIND OF THINGS WOULD IT DO TO YOU, TO ME, LIVING IN A PLACE LIKE THAT?" Sans shudders as his brother's voice changes, but won't look up, "A place where, at any moment, those in power can kill everyone you know? Where they play games with your life, as if there were no consequence?"
"pap-" Sans gasps, he'd never seen his brother look like that.
"How would you react if you knew it was happening, and your only option was to fight, to take the pain upon yourself, just hoping that this time, they'll give in? That this time, they'd stop torturing? How would it feel, seeing yourself fail over and over and over again?"
"bro, stop it, this isn't humerous-"
"How would you feel, Sans, if you had never known anything else?" He slammed the car door, leaning against the door and panting, eyes darting this way and that, not seeing the blacktop in front of him. His mind plays one scene over and over, with all its variations, golden light drowning out the rain.
Slowly, very slowly, it fades, and he registers the face in front of him, "p-papyrus?"
"ARE YOU BETTER, BROTHER? YOU HAVEN'T...DONE THAT IN A WHILE. DO YOU NEED A HUG?"
"pap...did you read my papers again?"
"BROTHER?"
"how did you know all that stuff?"
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, BROTHER?" His brother's face was always a simple book to him, and there was nothing there but honest bafflement.
"nothing, bro...let's get inside, wouldn't it be a pour idea to get tori's present all wet? wouldn't want to rain on her parade."
"SANS! THAT WAS AWFUL!"
"you're smiling, though."
"I AM AND I HATE IT!"
Papyrus
THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAD JUST FINISHED TALKING WITH THE NIGHT NURSE WHEN UNDYNE FLEW PAST IN A CLOUD OF PLASTER AND WOOD. HE RAN OVER TO HIS TRAINING BUDDY, THE NURSE BESIDE HIM WITH A MONSTER FIRST-AID KIT. HE TRIED TO SPEAK TO UNDYNE, BUT SHE WAS UNCONSCIOUS. THE NURSE ASKED HIM TO BRING UP HER HP- LUCKILY, IT HADN'T DROPPED MORE THAN A FEW POINTS. HE TURNED TO ASK SANS-
Sans
He knew leaving the kid alone was a bad idea; Undyne's people hadn't called in a while, and whatever it was they had found must have set the guard off. Thank the gods Asriel had picked up on whatever it was- he saw the crumpled hole where the door had been.
"hey, kid? can you hear me?" There was so much debris on the floor, it was hard to find a safe path through for his slippered feet. When he got in, though, he saw...shimmering lights. For a moment he was back in that hall, metal shards hanging in the air all around him - but these weren't falling, they were pointing. He turned to look, and gulped.
The kid had torn out of the nest of straps and tubes to curl themselves into a ball. Their white gown was staining red, they were tearing at their hair and sobbing, "theyredeadtheyredeadwhydidntIseeitIcantsavethemgodsImuselessI-" He stepped closer in time to see...flames?...dancing in her eye, white and black and silver all at once. The shards...fell towards her…
He reached and held-
Papyrus
PAPYRUS KNEW WHERE HIS BROTHER HAD GONE. HE RAN DOWN THE HALL, BOOTS CRUNCHING ON WOOD. HE GASPED AT THE BLUE GLOW OF HIS BROTHER'S MAGIC COMING FROM THE HOLE. HIS BROTHER HAD SAID HE DIDN'T TRUST THE TINY HUMAN-
"SANS, WHAT IS HAPPENING?" THE ROOM WAS FILLED WITH MAGIC...SPEARHEADS?...GLOWING WITH HIS BROTHER'S MAGIC. HE SUCKED IN A BREATH TO YELL-
"hey, bro...could you give me a hand? i can't keep these hanging forever." THE GREAT PAPYRUS NOTICED LIQUID SLIDE DOWN HIS BROTHER'S SKULL. SLOWLY, HE REACHED FOR THE TINY HUMAN. THERE WAS NO PATH IN OR OUT OF THE ATTACKS...HE WOULD HAVE TO BE CAREFUL. SANS HAD SHOWN HIM HOW TO TELEPORT THINGS, BUT HE WASN'T AS GOOD AS HIS BROTHER. HE GRABBED, THEN TWISTED-
SUDDENLY, HE WAS HOLDING THE TINY HUMAN, THEIR WHOLE BODY SHAKING. HIS BROTHER GASPED, AND HE LOOKED UP TO SEE THE ATTACKS HAD BROKEN FREE AND WERE TURNING TO POINT AT THE TINY HUMAN. HE WRAPPED THEM IN A HUG, PUTTING HIMSELF BETWEEN THEM AND THE ATTACKS-
Sans
The moment Papyrus teleported the kid into his arms, he felt the shards fighting him, trying to...change? He gasped as they broke free of him, watching them flow until they were once again facing the kid with razor-sharp points. He felt the kid's self-loathing, felt them flinch at Pap's touch, felt them tug. He watched in horror as his brother put himself between them and their maker, too late to stop the freefall they'd begun…
...they'd stopped…? It shouldn't be possible, not with that kind of energy behind them, but...he remembered what...Pap had said, about living powerless in a hell where the only way to stop others being hurt was to hurt yourself. He remembered the scars…
He heard a hollow thumping. The kid was beating on Papyrus' chest, sobbing, struggling to get free. He pushed some of the...whatever they weres aside, plopping down next to the pair. Gradually, the sobs dissolved into words, "...let me go, I need to die, I deserve to die. I'm horrible, you all hate me-"
Sans jumped on that statement, "why would we do that?" He hears someone breath in a hiss, and looks up at Undyne, standing in the hall about to speak. He lets his eyes go dark. She winces and walks away.
"COME ON, TINY HUMAN, WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS, WE DO NOT HATE YOU." The kid curled tighter in on themselves, the shards backing into the far corners. Sans motioned his brother into silence, and waited, his eyes slowly beginning to glow.
"...about four years ago? Something like that anyway...there was an...accident. One of the monster kids...she was sweet, always singing lullabies to us littler kids...one of my p-of the keepers...heard it. They got angry, and they...hurt her, badly. They left her there, and when we went to check...she was kinda...crumbly? It scared me...I wanted to stop it, and I...did something. She stopped crumbling, and I could hear her, inside my head, kinda? She asked why she looked so funny...one of the other older monster kids pulled something out, it had a purple wrapper, I think...and they fed it to her, and she stopped looking all crumbly, and I felt a kinda...tugging?...and then I couldn't hear her...she'd been tingley, but then it stopped, and then she woke up, and she was fine…" She'd stopped shaking, and she'd gone...still. He tried not to think about that meant.
"My par-the keepers didn't really notice, but one of the other kids mentioned it to the man I...to him, the smiley man. He got...interested in us. I thought he was worried about us being hurt. Hmph." Did he sound that cynical at their age?
"...not long after that, a monster came through who the smiley man...didn't like. He looked...kinda like you...he was trying to find out about the complex, what it was like and all. He says...he worked for the gohfer-men?...they beat him up, and then th-they dragged him to me. The smiley man grabbed one of the kids and said if I didn't do it again he'd kill them...I didn't really understand, but then he kicked the sk-skeleton, and he s-started to crumble, and...I reached for him. He was surprised, and he laughed when he went into my head...he says it tickled when I grabbed him. The s-smiley man was happy, and he ruffled the kid's hair like he was just playing, but he had that smile...Consolas said...that's the skeleton's name...he saw my memory of the singing girl, and said to ask them if they were going to give him any monster candy...my parents laughed when I did, and hit me…"
Sans stiffened when they said it, then tentatively reached out a hand and began rubbing their hair, slow circles like he used to do for their sibling's - for Frisk's nightmares. They didn't seem to notice, "After a while...maybe a year?...the smiley man got bored, and started beating up some of the kids to make me save them...sometimes I'd get to see them get better again...I DIDN'T KNOW HE KILLED THEM! I thought, if I held on, they'd get better, and then I could put them back in…"
Papyrus stiffened at her shout, then wrapped her tighter in his hug. He started talking, trying to comfort the kid, but everything he said just made her curl up tighter and tighter, until she started to struggle again. Sans scooted over in front of her, pulling back her hair until she could see his eyes - that is, if they were open. "aw, kid, look at me. i ain't so bonely, am i?"
The weak pun made her glare at him again, "that's better, no bones about it. now, listen, cause i ain't saying this twice," he saw the spark dim, resigned to more comforting words. Whelp, here goes, "you're right."
Papyrus whipped his head up, but Sans continued, ignoring him, "you're the reason why they died. but, it's not your fault,"
-whatever the fuck you are, I don't need your help, so get out of my fucking head-
-what…?-
"you were trying to save them. heh, sorry kid," he wiped a tear from his eye, "you just remind me of someone. you'd try to save the whole world, wouldn't ya? but you weren't the one that killed them, see. that lies on the head of...what'd you call him, the smiley man? him."
"he couldn't see something bright and good without making it his, so when he found out you could take their deaths away from him? he freaked, and found a way to take them back."
"you didn't know. maybe your friend...consolas? can he- nevermind...maybe he knew, when they killed him, but he never said, did he?"
The look on the kid's face told him that, yeah, Consolas could hear, and yeah, he knew, and he hadn't said. It was odd to find an ally inside someone's head, but Sans went with it, "let me tell you something, kid. there'll always be someone you can't save. you might not be smart enough, or strong enough, or fast enough," he remembered the...smiley man, "maybe they don't even want to be saved."
Papyrus was crying now - maybe Undyne had given him this speech too, "but if you get caught up in the ones you can't save, you'll be too busy to save the ones you can. and believe me kid," he paused, making sure they were looking him in the eye, "i can see you've got a whole lot left to save."
"I-" The kid's voice dissolved into tears. Sans looked up, panicked, to Papyrus - and saw the shards fizzle out in their corners. He breathed out, then further out as a small body crashed into his. The kid had abandoned Papyrus' lap for his. He felt a tiny hand grab his shirt, shaking a little more than the rest of them. He starts rubbing circles into their back.
"i know, kid," Papyrus crawls over and joins the hug, careful not to squish the sobbing child, "i know."
Hey everyone, it's the keyboard operator again. Sorry the chapter's so long, but I've been trying to get it out for a while. There was a lot that needed to go in. In case you didn't pick up on it, the soon to be renamed Spatula, Frisk's younger sibling, is the kid everyone's been watching over. She's an OC of mine who needed a backstory, and finally found it. I don't think Frisk would mind.